Physics Commons^™

Thermodynamics Of Modified Theories Of Gravity, Aric Hackebill

Theses and Dissertations

Einstein’s equations are derived by following Jacobson’s thermodynamic method. It is seen that a family of possible field equations exist which satisfy the thermodynamic argument. Modified theories of gravity are addressed as possible candidates for replacing dark matter as an explanation for anomalous cosmological phenomena. Many of the proposed modified theories are not powerful enough to explain the currently observed phenomena and are rejected as viable theories of gravity. A surviving candidate, TeVeS, is further analyzed under the aforementioned thermodynamic argument to check for its consistency with thermodynamics.